Christmas pickles
Each year as the Chri$tmas season approaches, I find the honest sentiments of many people, believers and otherwise, largely swamped by commercialism and, worst of all, too much Christmas music on the radio and in public places. For years I have immunized myself by writing contrarian carols, or "Christmas pickles". Here some from my website, including some non-pickly non-Christmasy seasonal songs.
- Branches on the Lawn: A small suburban tragedy.
- Christmas at the Mall: Only 364 shopping days left!
- Count Vorvlaceslav: Lois McMaster Bujold's Barrayar transforms "Good King Wenceslas".
- Deck the Aisles: You wouldn't believe what the supermarkets look like leading up to Christmas! Well, yes you would, but only because you've seen it too.
- Don't Throw That Missile!: Loki and Baldur.
- Frostbite the Goblin: What happens when snowmen go bad.
(I have a special fondness for this one because MEW heard me sing it at Boskone-in-exile [IIRC] early in my filking "career", i.e. the early nineties, and urged - insisted - that I sing it at the kids' filk that she was running. "Won't they be scared?" "Naw, kids love scary stories." And, of course, she was right.) - The Nerds' Wassail: My reconstruction/rewrite of Christy Tillman's "Nerd Carol".
- Ophidian Carol: A serpentine devotion.
- Rudolph the Red-Eyed Vampire: A Hallowe'en carol.
- The Seven Days of Creation: An old, old story.
- When Cons Come To New England: When's that, you may ask. In January (Arisia) and February (Boskone). And any other time of year, as the song relates.
- Xcess Carols: As I said above, too much Xma$ music.